Shinzo Abe of Japan Avoids Specifics in Speech on Trade Accord
By JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON — Shinzo Abe, in the first address by a Japanese prime minister to a joint meeting of Congress, praised his nation’s “quantum leap” in economic reforms but offered no specific concessions as he appealed to skeptical lawmakers to back a far-reaching Pacific trade accord.

Mr. Abe faced a Congress deeply divided by President Obama’s drive to obtain fast-track negotiating authority to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan and 10 other nations on the Pacific Rim. Lawmakers in both parties have questioned Mr. Abe’s ability to open his nation’s agriculture and auto markets to American products, one of the biggest questions that remain in the trade talks.

And beyond promises, Mr. Abe did not offer concrete concessions. “Japan’s agriculture is at a crossroads. In order for it to survive, it has to change now,” he said, also citing advances in women’s rights and corporate governance.

But he leaned hardest on an appeal toward regional security and prosperity that could come from an accord linking nations from Japan and Australia to Canada and Chile.

“The T.P.P. goes far beyond just economic benefits. It is also about our security. Long-term, its strategic value is awesome. We should never forget that,” he said. “We must turn the area into a region for lasting peace and prosperity. That is for the sake of our children and our children’s children.”

The trade agenda is rising in importance for Mr. Abe and Mr. Obama as they consider their legacies, even as the obstacles to approval appear increasingly stubborn. Most Democrats remain resolutely opposed to granting their own president trade promotion authority, which is the ability to negotiate trade agreements that Congress could not amend. And Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican leader in charge of vote counting in the House, suggested Wednesday that he would not be able to pass the authority on Republican votes alone.

“We’re not seeing enough of a push from the administration for Democratic votes,” he said.

In a potential blow, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and an influential hard-line conservative, questioned the push for a quick vote on trade promotion authority, saying it was the wrong focus for a Republican Party trying to appeal to middle-class voters.

“We’re going to move heaven and earth to pass a trade bill, and give this president the authority to negotiate a trade deal after the last seven weeks when we’ve criticized him for the pathetic deal he got with Iran?” he said on Laura Ingraham’s conservative radio show. “How does that make sense politically? Forget about the policy for a second — just think about raw politics. How does that make sense?”

Mr. Abe also faced a surprisingly robust demand for broader recognition of the predations of Japanese forces during World War II, especially the forcing of Korean women to have sex with Japanese soldiers. Representative Michael M. Honda, Democrat of California, invited one of the few surviving “comfort women” to the House chamber for Mr. Abe’s speech. And Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, told supporters in California on Tuesday that he wanted to hear a more effusive apology from the Japanese leader.

Mr. Abe again was not specific.

“History is harsh. What is done cannot be undone,” he said, recounting a visit Wednesday to the World War II memorial in Washington before arriving at the Capitol. He added, “Our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries. We must not avert our eyes from that. I will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers in this regard.”

That harkened to previous apologies for forced sexual enslavement, an oblique reference but one that was heartening to some South Korean officials who have feared that Mr. Abe could backtrack from such statements.

But trade topped Mr. Abe’s appeal. Before his arrival in Washington, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and a proponent of the Pacific trade deal, implored Mr. Abe to offer real concessions.

“The country lays huge tariffs on American foodstuffs and erects all sorts of barriers to keep out American autos; some tariffs can exceed 700 percent,” he wrote in The Washington Post. “Japan lobbied hard to join the T.P.P. talks but still hasn’t committed to eliminating these barriers.”

The American automotive industry has demanded any trade accord specifically prohibit the manipulation of currency exchange rates, which Detroit says Japan does to lower the price of its auto exports and raise the cost of American imports.

But Mr. Abe offered no public concessions.

“The U.S. and Japan must take the lead. We must take the lead to build a market that is fair, dynamic, sustainable, and is also free from the arbitrary intentions of any nation,” he said. “In the Pacific market, we cannot overlook sweatshops or burdens on the environment. Nor can we simply allow free riders on intellectual property. No. Instead, we can spread our shared values around the world.”

The speech left Congress as divided as it was before Mr. Abe entered the chamber. Representative Pat Tiberi, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, said the prime minister’s emphasis on geopolitics and the Japan-United States alliance was politically wise. The leader could not be expected to offer up concessions in such a public setting, especially before Congress passes trade promotion authority, he said. With that authority, known as T.P.A., Japan will be assured that it cannot face a situation where its best offer is accepted by international negotiators, only to be amended by Congress.

“Obviously the Japanese are not going to put their best offer on the table until we have T.P.A. out there,” Mr. Tiberi said. “We’ve heard that over and over.”

But opponents were not assuaged.

“Japan’s Prime Minister Abe is right to fight for concluding the T.P.P., since the advantages for Japan appear to be great, while the benefits for the U.S. are still questionable,” said Leo W. Gerard, the international president of the United Steelworkers.

美媒評安倍：稱頌犧牲卻不提過錯

日本首相安倍29日在二戰時期天皇裕仁冥誕當天於美國國會演說，《紐約時報》形容他對問題的提法「避免明確」，不提細節，談二戰，只稱頌美軍的犧牲，不提日本開戰之過，關於他演說前各界殷望他道歉的慰安婦問題，他將問題歸給歷史，甚至未提「慰安婦」一詞。

安倍以回憶二戰為演說開頭，說他29日稍早在華府國家草坪上的「二次世界大戰紀念館」獻花。

他說：「紀念館中銘刻的歷次戰役掠過我心頭，我想到那些美國青年失落的夢想和未來。歷史無情。既成之事，無從挽回。我心懷深悔，站在那裡默禱。我代表日本和日本人民，向二戰期間犧牲的美國人的靈魂獻上最深的敬意，永恆的慰唁。」

安倍情溢於詞，只是仍然不肯明確，不正視歷史，不提日本開戰之過，以及日本在戰爭過程中的行事，只說：「我們的行事為亞洲國家的人民帶來苦難，我們不能視而不見。這方面，我會沿承前幾位首相表達過的立場。」

前日本首相村山富市與小泉純一郎曾為日本的侵略與殖民統治表達「由衷歉意」，但他不想使用那些措詞，意思到了就行。

安倍在美國國會演說，一般視為他可以真正就慰安婦問題好好表態的機會。向來力抨安倍民族主義立場的加州日裔參議員麥可．本田，從南韓邀請現年87歲的慰安婦李榮淑，坐在國會裡，看看能不能聽到安倍一句道歉。

結果安倍閃爍其詞，含糊避過。他說：「武裝衝突往往對婦女造成最大痛苦。在我們這個時代，我們一定要實現女性終於能夠免於人權被侵犯的世界。」

安倍演說後，加州選出的美國史上首位華裔女眾議員趙美心表示：「我失望之至，他沒有能夠正視慰安婦問題。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/us/politics/shinzo-abe-japan-trade-accord-speech-to-congress.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/usa/20150430/c30abe/zh-hant/

2015-04-30．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯彭淮棟